Ham’s Hoops Roundup April 4th – The Refs Were Bad. The NCAA Is Worse.

(Disclaimer: this has nothing to do with Carolina. They won the game. They deserved to win the game. And nothing I’m about to say is meant in any way to take away from that.)

College refs stink. They STINK. The group last night… the supposed “A team” that was chosen to officiated the biggest game of the college season… might honestly have been the worst crew that’s ever officiated a title game. I can’t remember a championship that was ever more disjointed than last night. Whistle after whistle after whistle. Both teams in the bonus not even five minutes into the second half. Breaks in the game. Breaks in momentum. All resulting in some of the sloppiest, worst shooting games, championship or otherwise, that you’ll ever seen.

But you know what kills me about that?

The NCAA is the reason for that.

They saw how fast the first half went. They had commercials and advertisements they needed to air. And they told the refs to call a tighter game in order to drag the broadcast out and squeeze in all their ads.

That’s what happened. And if you’ve naive enough to think the NCAA doesn’t think that way then you’re part of the reason these fucking criminals are getting away with not paying the players.

And hey, if you don’t believe that? All good. Because the NCAA is still to blame for not hiring referees full time and/or training them well, resulting in about a bakers dozen bad or missed calls in just the second half alone. And the NCAA is still to blame for playing the three most important games of the season in a football stadium and ruining the players depth perception. And the NCAA is still to blame for Roy Williams getting a bonus of just under one million dollars for this tournament run while the players get nothing more than some t-shirt and a memory. And don’t even think about saying “scholarships and stipends”. Because FOR THESE SIX GAMES ALONE, ROY WILLIAMS GOT ONE MILLION DOLLARS AND THE PLAYERS WHO DID ALL OF THE WORK GOT ZERO DOLLARS. Again… Roy Williams = One Million Dollars on top of his salary for six games. Every player on Carolina’s roster combined = zero dollars for these six games.

Congrats again to Carolina. They earned that title, regardless of the officiating. I mean, it wasn’t nearly as great a redemption story as my Clemson Tigers. But hey… they don’t script em all the same, or whatever.

The NCAA is the worst.

Well, that’s all for college ball folks. Back to the NBA grind tonight. 11 days until the playoffs start. And while the West playoff picture looks to be rounding into form, there’s still plenty to be settled in the East. Cleveland and Boston battle it out tomorrow night with the one seed very much on the line. Toronto and Washington are still jockeying for the third seed. And seven different teams are still in the hunt for the last four spots in dance for the East.

All of that, plus the home stretch of the MVP race and the battle for lottery position. Tight races all around.